I was sitting at home one evening minding my own business. I had some ‘serious’ work to get done, and it included checking out a few things on Facebook. So I signed in and attended to my business.

Bing.

The Facebook chat opened up with a message from an old friend. I’ve never actually met this dude in person, but I know him and one of his pastors through some work that I’ve done with their church through my blog.

He told me that he was actually hanging out with that pastor at their church office working on a project together.

After the typical formalities of two friends who haven’t talked to each other in a while he asked me a monumental question. I’ll quote him as closely as I can remember…

“Hey Dan, we are here reaching out to people we know through Facebook to find out how we can pray for them, and we’d like to pray for you. How can we pray for you?”

First of all, I was honored to know that someone wanted to pray for me! So I shared with him about an upcoming mission trip to Haiti that I’m working on, and asked that they pray that everything comes together okay for that trip.

I never did inquire as to what their ‘project’ specifically looked like, but knowing how they work I can easily imagine what they were doing. But even if the way I present this is not exactly like their approach, they gave me enough of an idea to formulate what seems to be a very effective way of reaching out to people. And if I were putting together this type of project it would probably look something like this…

Get some people together in place where several computers can be connected to the Internet. (Note: Have people bring laptops and netbooks if they have them.)

Have everyone log onto their Facebook accounts and initiate chat with each of their friends who are online at that time.

Ask each person how you can pray for them (and yes, that includes non-Christian friends).

Document on a spreadsheet or other document each of the prayer requests that come in.

Gather after a period of time to pray with each other for all of the prayer requests that have been collected.

As I write this, my analysis of this approach to outreach is only anecdotal, but I imagine that it could have some pretty powerful impact. It’s something that encourages believers and shows unbelievers that you are willing to do something in their on their behalf.

In my mind, evangelism largely about showing others the love of Christ in a way that draws them closer to Him. And these kinds of selfless acts are the very ones that people will remember when they are going through something and are not sure where to turn.

Dan King is a dedicated follower of Christ, a loving husband (to my beautiful wife Krista), and a proud father (of my son Samuel). We works as a corporate training manager, and you can find him blogging at bibledude.net.

Dan, thanks for posting this idea. My experience has been that prayer is one of the best spiritual "ice breakers." Even most non-religious people say they pray occasionally and are appreciative when others pray for them.

What I've found, though, is while most people appreciate the offer of prayer, for may people saying "I'll pray for you" has become something of a cliche they don't take all that serious. If you really want to impact somebody with prayer ministry 1) actually pray for them, and 2) send them a message after a couple weeks letting them know you've been praying for them and asking if anything has changed, if there's anything else you can pray for, or if there's anything you can do for them.

That's great feedback Paul! What I'm proposing includes the "1) actually pray for them", but I love adding your other suggestion to the list. Following up later is a great way to show the people that you were serious about what you told them about praying for them. It also opens another opportunity to connect with them with the potential of evangelism…

This is a great idea, Dan. Intercessory prayer is my Christian mission during this season of my life. I do not hide my beliefs when on Facebook. Recently I have had two people I do not know ask me to be their Facebook friend and when I messaged back to say I did not really know them, they told me the reason they wanted to be a friend was because they needed prayer. They heard I prayed from my regular Facebook friends. The internet is wide open for evangelism!

Thanks for the feedback Dave! I definitely think that something like this is not just a technology thing, but definitely more of an intercessory prayer thing. It's cool to think about what intercessory prayer meetings would be like if they had the lists and spreadsheets of prayer needs that people are gathering through these interactions.

This is a great idea to share on facebook,I have been looking for an effective way to reach people.I am a leader in Celebrate Recovery a Christ centered 12 step to reach hurting people.So thanks for the good tips…..

It's great to hear that you see value in using this for reaching hurting people! I definitely agree that great healing could take place through this kind of connection with people. Thanks Jerry! I appreciate the comment!